Amanda and I have made some progress on the Perky Project, but I have some
questions that I'd like to resolve before I can move forward with confidence.
# Status
I have a pair of plausible Perky Pup prototypes in progress (:-). Each has a
compute module and a control module, connected by two pairs of headers. This
requires some soldering, but it provides a lot of convenience and flexibility.
Once I get both prototypes working, one will go to Austin so that Amanda can
start programming and trying it out. I'll keep the other to work on, show off
to folks in the SF Bay Area, etc.
## Control module
The control module is based on Sparkfun's Snappable P-Board, which provides a
2.75" by 5" array of plated-through holes. The components are mounted on the
top of the board and hand-wired on the bottom. They include:
- 16 tactile pushbuttons, arranged in two rows of eight buttons
- two small tactile pushbuttons, used for power control, etc.
- two dual male headers (2x20, 2x2)
- 1/8" (3.5 mm.) stereo output jack
The two prototypes use different types of buttons. One type has a soft rubber
top, flat and about 0.1" in diameter. The other type has a hard plastic top,
slightly domed and about 0.5" in diameter. On both prototypes, the buttons are
arranged on a rectangular grid, with 0.6" spacing between centers.
## Compute module
I have also constructed a pair of compute modules. One version is minimal: a
RasPi Zero W (ZW) with female headers mounted on the bottom. The other version
has a plastic case and a NoIR (dark-optimized) camera. I expect to create more
modules of both kinds, to try out other button types and arrangements, etc.
The system power is supplied by a wall wart, feeding a Lithium-Ion Power Bank.
For convenience and robustness, we're using USB cables with magnetic coupling on
the RasPi (Micro USB) end. In future prototypes, a single Lithium-Ion cell will
allow moderate usage (e.g., a few hours) without requiring an external supply.
Once the hardware is constructed, I need to load in a minimal set of software.
My plan is to start with Raspberry VI, using an HDMI monitor and a keyboard. I
expect to move to remote access (via SSH and Wi-Fi) shortly. Although Amanda
could work in a similar fashion, I'd really like to provide her with a system
that supports audio output.
We're using 18 of the header (GPIO) pins for buttons and two for audio output.
We're reserving two pins each for I2C and UARTs (roughly, low-voltage RS-232).
# Questions
I've been examining the Raspberry VI web site, trying to understand exactly what
Mike's release contains. Part of the problem is that I know almost nothing
about
eSpeak (NG), espeakup, OpenMAX, Piespeakup, Speakup, etc.
Q: Can someone tell me about the relationships between these packages? For
example, which of them depend upon (and/or include) others?
Q: More specifically, which of these packages is included in Raspberry VI?
The downloads page says: "The GUI speech (and all audio) works via USB audio,
but piespeakup speech comes out of analog jack".
Q: Does this mean that the system needs to be connected to both USB and analog
audio, in order for all of the sound to be available to the user?
I'm also unclear about the status of the stuttering issue.
Q: Is it still a problem with the current downloadable image?
Q: If so, what (software or hardware) workarounds are available?
I gather that Raspberry VI doesn't include BRLTTY, Emacs, or Emacspeak. Are
there any caveats or clues about installing these?
Also, I'm not too clear on how Raspbian Lite compares with Raspbian. AFAICT,
the major difference is that it doesn't have X Windows and related GUI jazz.
Q: Is there any other major software that has been left out?
I'd like to use a large capacity SD card to store the OS and working data. It
might be cool to partition it as a couple of system partitions and a data area.
Q: How large a card and/or partition can Raspberry VI and the RasPI ZW handle?
Q: What kinds of partitions should I set up?
More generally, all helpful comments, clues, and suggestions are most welcome!
-r
--
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm Rich Morin rdm@xxxxxxxx
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/resume San Bruno, CA, USA +1 650-873-7841
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